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Tuesday, 15 October 2013

How to add lace trim to a skirt

I love skirt layering. Most of the time, when I'm wearing a skirt or dress, I wear some kind of underskirt, either to give it a certain shape, or to add a trim detail. As well as looking nice, adding a trim also gives the skirt extra length, which is exactly what I needed for this full floral skirt from Matalan's kids' section.

By sewing on a lace trim onto the attached slip under the skirt, I can get a poofy shape thanks to my petticoat, and the detail of a trim. Otherwise I would have to wear a total of three skirts at once to achieve the same effect, and even I draw the line at a maximum of two.

You will need:

skirt with a slip attached (mine is shown in the picture above inside-out)

wide lace trim

tape measure

berry pins

needle and thread

scissors

Measure the circumference of the skirt's slip so you know how much lace to buy. It might be tricky finding lace trim wide enough - I was only able to get this eyelet lace - but I think crochet lace would look even better.

Pin the lace to the underskirt all the way round, then put it on, trying not to stab yourself. The underskirt may not be the same length all the way round so now's the tricky bit of trying to adjust the lace so it pokes out under the skirt evenly. It's easiest if you do this adjusting while you're still wearing it.

Optional step: when you think you've got the lace's placement right, do a really wide rough stitch just to attach the lace. Wear the skirt out for a day. If the lace's placement seemed fine all day, then you're ready to sew it on more securely. Admire my beautifully even stitching below...

Finally, if you used eyelet lace like me, there might be loose threads in the corners. Snip them off so everything is looking nice and tidy and not as if you couldn't find any better quality lace.

Super-fantastic post! I love it as much as I love the idea of adding lace to about EVERYTHING.

There is a catch though; you are a very young & very skinny girl (Kudos to you!) and layered skirts look lovely & playful on you. I am over 30 though and not really skinny - a lovely skirt like that would add at least 15 centimeters / the look of 5 kilos more to my mid-section :( *SIGH*

I love it on you though and hope many girls are inspired by your fab manual!

omg i love it :o you are like the only place that showed how to do it (i am a bit of a beginner so maybe its just assumed that anyone could do it) but thank you!could i post this to tumblr (as a link here of course) to make it easy to find?